By Jim Dower: Undefeated fringe middleweight contender Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (17-0, 11 KOs) won a 10-round lopsided unanimous decision over Affif Belghecham (15-3-1, 2 KOs) on Thursday night at Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, in Paris, France. N’Jikam, 24, a former 2004 Summer Olympics for his Africa, fought exceptionally well, showing impressive boxing skills in easily beating Belghecham by the judges’ scores of 98-92, 100-90 and 100-91.
However, N’Jikam appeared to go way overboard with his constant showboating in every round, making himself look clownish and absurd much of the time. The thing of it was, he didn’t need the constant showboating, which at one point included an Ali shuffle, because his boxing skills were nothing short of extraordinary.
His hand speed, power, movement and unorthodox punching angles, reminded me of a combination of Naseem Hamed, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Muhammed Ali. However, he made the fight harder than it should have been with his constant movement around the ring, as well as his clowning, because it seemed to tire him out somewhat in the later rounds, enabling Belghecham to land some nice shots in the last few rounds of the fight.
If N’Jikam could tone down his over the top style of fighting, he could very well be one of the top five middleweights in the division already with the kind of talent that he showed against Belghecham. Indeed, I’d rate him well above middleweights like John Duddy, Randy Griffin, Marco Antonio Rubio, and Khoren Gevor.
N’Jikam, 5’11”, originally from Cameroon and now fighting out of France, looked impressive in the first round, circling the ring and landing jabs, uppercuts and right hands against the slower Belghecham. N’Jikam continued to fight especially well in rounds two and three, bouncing on his toes, changing directions and using a lot of upper body movement to avoid punches from Belghecham. In most cases, all the excess movement was hardly needed, because Belghecham, 34, was badly outclassed and had nothing near the needed skills to make a fight of it against the talented N’Jikam.
Even when N’Jikam was standing still, Belghecham was unable to land his punches because of the upper body movement of N’Jikam which included a lot of leaning, bending, shoulder rolls and ducking, making it almost impossible for Belghecham to land anything it all in the early going. In the 4th round, N’Jikam appeared to knock Belghecham down with a big right to the body.
However, for some reason, the referee waived off the knockdown. It looked legitimate to me. N’Jikam began using much more movement in this round, changing directions constantly, using the shuffle and moving a lot with his torso.
It seemed as if he was trying to taunt Belghecham for some reason. I have no idea why he’d waste his time, because Belghecham was terribly outclassed in this fight and nowhere near as talented as N’Jikam. Perhaps I could understand some – a little bit – of the showboating if the fight was a competitive one, but it wasn’t.
The fight was a slaughter from the first round on and there was nothing the least bit competitive about the fight. N’Jikam was just too good, whereas Belghecham looked like a top 200 fighter, maybe top 300. In other words, he didn’t belong in the same ring with N’Jikam.
In rounds five through eight, N’Jikam continued moving, pot shotting and generally making Belghecham look bad. N’Jikam did a little of everything, fighting off the ropes, turning sideways to dodge punches, as if dodging a ball thrown at him, leaning away from shots and doing the shuffle.
It was good, but also painful to watch because he seemed to be going way overboard with his clowning. In rounds nine and ten, N’Jikam began to slow down a little bit, getting somewhat sloppy and getting hit on occasion by Belghecham. It’s understandable, however, because N’Jikam had expended a huge amount of energy with his needless movement and constant showboating.
In fact, it was if he had fought a 15 round fight instead of just a 10 rounder with his constant motion. Perhaps tired of his antics, Belghecham shoved N’Jikam in the back after the 9th round. N’Jikam didn’t respond to the shove, instead looking sheepish as if he were injuring torturing Belghecham by making him look bad.
Not letting up a bit, N’Jikam continued throwing punches from all sorts of angles in the 10th round, loading up with big body shots and throwing superb-looking hooks. Incredible stuff, all of it, showing that he could find extremely well when he was halfway serious.